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by garagemc2 2888 days ago
The biggest threat to Zildjian is a shift to electric drums and thus electric cymbals.
3 comments

Electric drums are cool in their own way but... they will never replace the acoustic drum kit. They are two very different instruments.
That's a long way off. Electric drums or nothing new, and until you can accurately replicate the sound of live drums with electric drums, good luc that's a long way off. Electric drums or nothing new, and until you can accurately replicate the sound of live drums in a concert venue with electric drums, there's no risk.
Not just the sound, but the expressiveness. Electric kits do not create noise directly from the performance of the drummer. There is a layer of interpretation and mapping to sound. So they can only reproduce sounds pre-programmed into them according to variation that their senors are designed to respond to. Acoustic kits are making noise because of the physical properties of the kit itself. So you will always be able to find sounds on an acoustic kit you cannot reproduce on an electric kit. And the range of expression present on an acoustic kit will always be infinitely greater than an electric kit.

Full disclosure: I own an electric kit.

Zildjian also makes electronic cymbals, so they are staying with these industry trends.